We are all lovers, devotees of a higher power, thousands of lovers, but the Beloved is one for all. He whom we desire is the beloved of the whole world and is the one God for all men, not specifically for Muslims only, or for Hindus only, or for Christians only.

The birthright to be God

I am glad to be amongst you again after three and a half months. We are all children of God. God is all Light and we are also Light, being children of Light. But our Light is enveloped by so many coverings, and we are so identified with the coverings, that we have forgotten ourselves. The cause of this identification is that the attention, which is the expression of our soul, is, through the outgoing faculties, diffused in the outside world.

We have, as man, this man-body – a very wonderful house in which we live. It is considered to be the highest in all creation. All Masters spoke very highly of it. They said that it is next to God. We are divine in nature; we are Spirit in man. As Spirit is eternal, we are also eternal. Why do we fear that we will die? But this greatness of our own, which is innate in us, we have forgotten.

So all Masters say: Realize the Godhood which already exists in you. You are not to put in anything from outside. When a Master meets you, He does not put in anything from outside within you. Our attention, which is the expression of soul, is diffused in the world. He simply helps us to withdraw our attention from outside and come to its source, which is our own soul, at the back of the eyes, where our soul is withdrawn from the body and goes at the time of death. If we can do that, we realize that we are no other than God.

When the Masters come, they say: "We are in a very pitiable state. We are living in a house in which so many outgoing faculties are working. They were meant to serve us; but unfortunately, instead of serving us, they have control over us. They are dragging us like anything." Take the outgoing faculty of sight: since the day we were born until the present time, our attention has been diffused through the eyes to outside things. We have been receiving so many impressions through the eyes: it is considered that about eighty percent of all our impressions come through them. Of the impressions that come from the other outgoing faculties, the most frequent is audition: we receive about fourteen percent of our impressions through the ears. The remaining six percent comes through the other three outgoing faculties. Now what happens? When we see something, we are attracted like anything. We receive so many impressions through the eyes, the ears and the other sources, that our subconscious reservoir is overflowing with the impressions we have been receiving all through life. Even when we dream, they react there.

If we know how to withdraw – that is, liberate ourselves from the outgoing faculties – there is some hope. But our soul is under the control of mind. The soul and the mind have become one; combined they are called jiva. Soul is eternal, as I told you before, being of one substance only – consciousness. But, coming in contact with mind, it became the doer. Both combined are dragged to outside things through the outgoing faculties. We have become so identified with them that we have no idea of our own Selves left.

We are souls, not mind also. Take the example of water: it is made up of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen, you know, is life-giving: when a man is dangerously sick, he is given a cylinder of oxygen. And hydrogen gas chokes our throat. Two different things, when combined together, form water, the quality of which is different from the two. Similarly, we are eternal Spirit in man. Combined with mind we have become the doers; and "whatever we sow, so shall we reap." So Masters say: "Be still." What did they mean? Physically and intellectually still. Then we will know that none other than God is within us.

So this is the true state of affairs, you might say, in which we are living. We do not know how to liberate ourselves. The outgoing faculties are so strong that, in spite of our wishing it, we cannot do it. When we become helpless and we cry, what happens? We are souls, as I told you, children of God. God is our true Father. He sees: my child is unhappy; he cannot of himself come up to me, cannot be liberated. When a man is himself bound hand and foot, how can he loosen himself from that binding? Somebody else who is not bound must do it. A bound man cannot unbind another man.

So you will find that somebody is required who has unbound himself: he has withdrawn his attention from outside things and the control that the outgoing faculties have on it, liberated it and analyzed it from mind. Then man knows that he has the same Godhood. The attention is furthermore environed by so many casings or coverings; that is, physical, astral, causal and supercausal. Unless we liberate ourselves from all these things, we cannot know, truly speaking, about our own Selves – although we do begin to see when we first withdraw from the outside and rise above the Iron Curtain of the physical body: we see that we are not the physical body. The Godhood begins to shine within us and we become conscious of it. As we progress further, we liberate ourselves from the astral and causal coverings. We become more and more conscious of it until we become one; because, after all, we are Light. When Light is analyzed from all other things, naturally Light is absorbed in the grander Light.

Take the example of a candle. When it is burning, if you put it straight up, the flame will go up; but even if you put it downward, the flame will still go up. So our souls, being Light, always try to go to the great Source of Light, which is called God – that God which came into expression. All scriptures tell us that when God wished, Lo, there was Light. We are a spark of that Light.

We have this man-body, a wonderful house in which we live. Here God gave us servants to help us, but they are revolting. Instead of following us and obeying us, they are dragging us outside. And what things come in the way, to which our outgoing faculties drag us? These things are pleasures. To whom? To the soul plus mind – the doer, which is called jiva. Unless we get more bliss and joy than we are now having, we cannot leave the outside things.

So God has made arrangements. The outside things, the pleasures, which drag us outward can be divided into two parts. The first part is very beautiful scenes and beautiful things. When we see beautiful scenery or any beautiful thing, our attention is drawn to it. And the second is that when we hear very sweet symphonies of music, we are drawn like anything. These two outside things are the important ones which drag us outside. But God has more bliss, more happiness, more joy, more sweet symphonies of the Music of the Spheres. All glory and beauty lie within us – if only we knew how to withdraw from the outside. We have a great treasure within us. God is a hidden treasure, with all beauty, all sweet symphonies within us; but we do not know how to invert, to withdraw from outside and enjoy it. This is the state of affairs we are in. As a man, we are all one.

Now, take the example of a house where there is a mistress and she has been given ten servants to help her, and they revolt. Instead of obeying, they are disobeying everything. Then what would be the fate of the house? Everything would be topsy-turvy. If the servants are obeying, the house will be clean and everything will be set in order; even if you go around in the dark you will see what is what. Otherwise, what happens? The tables are upturned; there is no way out; it is all darkness; you pass on; you tumble over one thing, it falls the other way; there is no light to see. That is the true condition in which we are living.

Masters tell us, first of all, how to have control over these outgoing faculties. They tell us – not only tell us, but demonstrate to us – how to withdraw, how to give us a contact with all beauty and all glory, which is within. We begin to have a contact on the very first day, when we learn how to withdraw from outside - perhaps for a while; the first step is difficult.

As I told you, we have so many outward impressions overflowing within us that they even come out in the form of dreams. Naturally, when you sit in meditation, something will come up of which you have never dreamed. These are the unconnected impressions which you have been receiving all throughout life. That is the first difficulty we have. For that reason, Masters come and tell us where we get these impressions, how to control them and how to stop receiving impressions from the outside.

The first thing is to enter this house. I tell you honestly, the servants have bound the mistress! One is dragging this way, the other that way. The result is that the whole house is topsy-turvy, and there is darkness in the house.

When you come to your Master, what does He do? He simply gives you this teaching and demonstrates how to withdraw; how your attention is withdrawn from the outside; how to enter the laboratory of the man-body; how to liberate it from the outgoing faculties of the senses; and how to rise above the body for a while and receive a contact within. Of whom? Of God.

What is God? God is Light; God is Life; God is Love. You see Light; you are given some experience of Light, whether it is little or more. You feel consciousness and you feel a little separate from the body. You begin to see. Now we say, "It is my body;" but we do not see it differentiated practically. But then, really we will say, "This is something like a coat, to be taken off." Naturally, God is Love and we are drops of the Ocean of All Love. Naturally, Love is innate in us. That sprouts forth; and as it comes in contact with that God-into-Expression Power, which is Light and Sound Principle, it overflows. This is the state of affairs – this is the disease, you might say, that we are to set right. For this purpose we have joined various schools of thought called religions, which are means to the end.

Who are we? We are children of Light under the control of mind and the outgoing faculties. We are so identified with the body and the outside things that we have forgotten our own Selves, what to speak of that Great Power which is controlling each one of us in the man-body; otherwise we could have run away, out of the body. We cannot. There are the two open eyes, two open ears, two open nostrils, the open mouth; but we cannot run away, out of the body. That is because of the Controlling Power within us.

What is the function of a Master? And what is He? He is a man like you – of course, outwardly. He has the same two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet. He talks like you; He also eats to maintain the body; He does other functions on the worldly level, too; but He is conscious of His Divine Nature. He is a conscious co-worker with the Divine Plan, although He works at the level of men to help them as a man.

So this is what we have to overcome. Our schools of thought or religions were made for the purpose of solving this mystery of life – to be out of these entanglements or obliviousness, altogether. We do not know who we are. A little child knows better than we. If you ask him who he is, he opens his eyes, opens his mouth; he feels it somewhere in here. As he grows older in years and you ask him, he says, "I am Mr. Such-and-Such." Further, he says, "I am a Christian; I am a Hindu; I am a Mohammedan." Again, further he says, "I am American; I am French; I am German; I am Indian." Who is he? He is a conscious being. That we have forgotten. We go so far away from our own Selves that we forget our own Selves.

Masters come to tell us this. They address us either as a man, from the level of man – "O, man, awake!" – or from the level of the soul, the conscious being – "O, children of Light, awake! You are asleep. Being under the control of mind, your attention is diffused into the world and identified with it. You are awakened outside and are asleep from within. The God-Power is already within you, waiting for you. Your true home is the True Home of your Father, that is, of all-consciousness and all wisdom. Why are you stuck fast in this material world, in the outside things? These are only temporarily given to you. The body, being made of matter, is changing every moment of life. This is the golden opportunity which has been given to us to realize ourselves, to know ourselves and to know the Controlling Power which is controlling us in the body and is controlling the entire universe."

All Masters say that – of course, in their own language, which was prevalent at the time they came. By a parallel study of religions you will find this to be so. Religions were made to liberate us from all these outer entanglements, to know ourselves and to know God. These were means to the end. The school and college from which many students have been graduated and get degrees is creditable; but we have joined them and forgotten the goal. We simply identify ourselves as belonging to one religion or the other or one country or the other. There have been religious wars and patriotic wars in which thousands and millions were killed, and are being killed. When Masters come, they give us teachings from the universal level. They consider all to be children of God, brothers and sisters in God, because all are maintained and controlled by that Higher Power. This is the true state of affairs we are in. To remain in whatever religion you are in is a blessing. But not to attain or to achieve this lost Godhood means you are still bound. For that purpose, Masters tell us what to do.

The story goes in the Hindu scriptures that there was a very learned pundit or minister, who was a Hindu. He was the minister to a king called King Prikshat. He used to read out the scriptures day after day, every morning, in the court. And the scriptures say, those who hear the scriptures and act are liberated. Liberation is not something to be had after death; but it is to be known now whether you are liberated or not. So those scriptures were read over so many times, from day to day, month to month. One day King Prikshat sat down and thought: "Well, I have read in the scriptures, `Whoever hears these scriptures is liberated once and for all.' But I am bound."

The mind is very much like a magistrate; it tells you why you are bound. If you leave it to him, it is just true. He told the minister: "Well, look here; I have heard these scriptures so many times. Again I give you a chance to read the whole scripture from one end to the other; and after that, if I am not liberated, you will be put to death." What happened? In seven days the entire scriptures were read over and on the last day the minister came home and lay down in despair: "Tomorrow is the day of my death."

His daughter was very wise. (Sometimes daughters are very wise.) She asked her father, "Why are you so sad?" "Well, dear daughter, I am to be put to death tomorrow." "Why?" "Because it is laid down in the scriptures, `Whoever reads these scriptures and follows them, they naturally are liberated.' But I know the king is not liberated, nor am I liberated. Well, I must be put to death tomorrow; there is no escape from it." His daughter told him, "All right, I will go to the king tomorrow morning and just question him." She went there the next morning and the king asked, "Why have you come?" Daughter: "Well, I have come to reply to the question that you put to my father." "What?" "But not here. Let us go to the wilderness, all alone, you and I." And she also sent for her father and got two ropes. She tied the king to one tree and her own father to another. Both were bound to a tree. She came to her father and said, "Father, will you kindly unbind the king over there?" He said, "I am bound already; how can I?" Then she went to the king: "Well, King, would you kindly unbind my father?" "O foolish girl, don't you think I am bound? How can a bound man unbind the other one?"

And that was all she wanted, you see. This is what is happening: we are bound, hand and foot, by the outgoing faculties. We do not know how to be liberated ourselves; how can we liberate others? This is a practical question of unbinding oneself. To read the scriptures is not sufficient, mind that. To hear the scriptures is also not sufficient. There must be somebody who can practically demonstrate how to withdraw from the outside for a while, how to rise above these shackles of outgoing faculties, how to open our inner eye and give us some contact within. Once we do it, again and again, by regular practice, we will succeed. "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, try again." This is what the Master does. To give a lecture, to tell you how to say prayers, how to perform certain rites and rituals – that any man can do after a little training: how to act and pose, how to laugh, how to cry – No. This is a practical question. He who knows it, who has that experience, is competent to give it: He will give you some experience to start with; it may be little or more. And what is wanted that He wants? To be still, physically and intellectually.

God cannot be known by the outgoing faculties, by the intellect or the vital airs called the pranas. He can be known only by the soul: like alone can know the like. When is the soul liberated? When it is analysed from mind and the outgoing faculties. This is a practical question. Now it appeals to you intellectually. But how do we do it? The reading of scriptures, saying of prayers, performing of certain rites and rituals all relate to the outgoing faculties; but this is something that starts when you rise above the outgoing faculties. You also cannot do it with the mind and the intellect; you cannot do it unless you are intellectually still. You might draw an inference to come to some conclusion, but still the mind is intellectually working. We must be intellectually still, too. Then a sort of transport arises to the soul, and it is unbound. This is all we have to do.

When someone comes to the Master, what does He do? All these ten servants of the outgoing faculties – five of audition, sight, smell, taste and touch, working through the sense organs of the ears, eyes, nose, tongue and skin – are to be controlled. If these are controlled, then the house will be set in order. Every servant will do his job: "All right, you clean the rooms; you set the chairs in order; you light the candle." Everything will be all right. This is the first thing to be done. Those who are attached, who are given up to the outside enjoyments or pleasures – maybe good, excuse me, or bad – are bound. Lord Krishna said, "`Good actions and bad actions are both binding, like chains of gold or chains of iron." This is the practical, first thing that we have at the feet of the Master. He gives you the way to withdraw from the outside and rise above body consciousness for a while. One cannot be an M.A. in one day. Rome was not built in a day. But once you get something, by regular practice and by obeying His orders, you will naturally become adept.

A man who today is reading in the M.A. class was once reading in the primary class. If those who are now reading in the primary class are given the same help and guidance, they too can reach the M.A. class. That is why it is said, "Every Saint has his past and every sinner a future." Man can change. Even the dacoits can become Saints: Valmiki was a dacoit; he became a Saint. He related the story of the Ramayana eighteen thousand years before it actually happened. ( The Ramayana is the oldest Sanskrit epic poem; it relates the beautiful and popular tale of Rama and his wife Sita and the final conquest of good over evil.)

My point is that there is hope for everybody. There is nothing to be disheartened about. But we have to develop whatever experience is given without the intervention of the outgoing faculties and intellect. It does not mean you should not use your intellect. When you understand a thing, then do it. Let not the mind meddle into it; because if your mind is clutching, seeing here and there, and drawing inferences, the intellect is working. And until you are intellectually still, you cannot take a step further.

This is the first thing we have to do. To do it you are advised to keep a diary for self introspection. Do you now realize the necessity of the diary? But how many of you are keeping diaries – maintaining the diary daily? I'm afraid it may not be ten percent. That is why, even if we do get something, we do not progress wonderfully. We must. This is the first thing we learn at the feet of a Master.

What is the difference between a Master and an average man? He is a man, just as a doctor is a man, like us; but the doctor knows by anatomy how the system works, how diseases arise, and how they can be cured. Similarly, this is a disease from which we are suffering. He who is adept and competent, who himself goes beyond these bounds and can help others to raise themselves up, is called a Master; that is, the God in him. Do you know who can give you a contact with God? No son of man can do it: it is God Absolute Which came into expression. When He came down, He gave teachings of the higher way because He had seen it. He knows the way, and in the man-body He is conscious of it. That is the difference between an average man and a Master.

When you come to such a Master, this is the first thing to be done. And here we lack, I tell you. We are given some experience, but we don't live up to it. Dragged away by the outside pleasures, knowing that God is within us – the Priceless Jewel, the Priceless Pearl – we cannot leave off this dross of the outside things. Tagore, a poet of international fame, says, "O God, I see there is a great wealth in You. Why cannot I throw away the filth of the dross of this body?" Knowing fully well – we do realize the truth intellectually. What do the Masters say? "God first and the world next." And what do we say? "The world first and maybe God afterwards." Truly speaking, we are not after God, we are after the world. We pray to God why? Most of us want worldly things. Were that not within the competency of God to provide them, nobody would have thought of God. A weaker man prays before some stronger person. Whatever goes out from the heart of our hearts, He hears; He is there already. He is watching our every action. "Ask and it shall be given unto you." This is what all the Masters said.

This is the first thing; I have been laying much stress on that very point. I have been requesting and directing – I have been begging of you people, through my circulars and verbal talks, too – and still, if you do not do it? We should.

That is the first thing. What will happen? Although your vision is through your open eyes, you will have so much control over your sight, that while your eyes are open you do not see. This we can develop. Newton was sitting by a roadside, solving certain mathematical problems. He was so absorbed in these problems, that although a band passed by him playing, he did not hear it. Why? Until this attention, which is the outcome of our soul, is with the outgoing faculties, the outgoing faculties do not work. Somebody approached and asked him, "Well, Newton, has any band passed by this way?" "No," he answered, "I don't know."

You might have had an experience in your own lives of having sat very much absorbed in some thought and when somebody called you, you did not hear it. If somebody comes and sits by you while you are absorbed, you don't feel who has come and gone. This is the training of the attention, which is called Surat Yoga. When the attention (surat) is set, you might be sitting with hundreds of people and still be all alone. This is what Emerson says. When he wanted all loneliness, he went to an inn where hundreds came and went. This was because he had no concern with anybody; he was absorbed in his own thoughts. If you think that you should leave the world and go to the wilderness, there also you have animals and trees, and your attention is drawn outside. The only thing required is to control all the outgoing faculties. And how to do it you can learn from those who have done it; and by following their instructions.

You might have experienced in your own life, that when you are cut off from everything outside, you feel a sort of rest and peace: not every day, but at times. When you are quite absorbed and cut off from everything, you feel a sense of pleasure, rest, bliss and peace. Naturally, what happens? We are after having that peace prolonged. Naturally we want that. We are children of Light, as I told you. Like a candle's flame, our source is up. Every man wants to go up. If you turn its face downward, even then it will go up. Our soul is of God, of Light. It is bound by the outgoing faculties in the body. When it is liberated, it will go up; this is but natural. Then, naturally, true rest comes. How? When we withdraw our attention from outside and enter the laboratory of the man-body. When you enter an air – conditioned room after having been in the burning rays of the sun, how rested you feel! It is something like that. You feel at rest. You have some glimpses when Master comes. Not only does he show you how to withdraw from outside and enter this laboratory of the man-body, but he also shows you how to rise above the senses and have some experience of the beyond. When? When there is no questioning of the mind. When the intellect is at rest, that Truth naturally becomes effulgent, and you see Light. If you are questioning why this is so, why that is not so, why that has not come, then your mind is not still. It has to be stilled.

What you feel at that time is the experience of God, in the form of Light and Sound. The Master first gives you an experience of how to rise above this Iron Curtain of the man-body; then, as you practice day to day, you rise above the astral body, the causal body and the supercausal body. Day to day you experience more bliss and joy. Saint Tulsi Das says that when he rose above body consciousness and reached the causal plane and had an experience of bliss and joy, he thought, "That is the most and highest of all." But after he had transcended the causal plane into the supercausal and beyond, he said, "The causal plane is perhaps only a wash room compared to this."

Those who have tasted that bliss are here in the world, but they are bound – Masters go under the orders of God. They want to go back. When any of us also has some experience like that, we wish to go in there. Why don't we want to go in there now? Because we find joy and bliss and happiness in outside things. And, moreover, we have never cared to analyze – to go into the matter – of what it is that gives us bliss in the outside things.

We are conscious beings. How can a conscious being have bliss or joy or happiness in material things? But we do feel it – How? Why? We are bliss personified. God is all bliss, all happiness and all joy, and this bliss is also innate in us. So long as we are identified with something, we reflect our own happiness in that thing. When that thing is withdrawn from us, or we are made to withdraw from it, we feel unhappiness. So we should identify ourselves with something which is not changing. And that is God alone. Any happiness we feel with outside things, is not really lying in those things, but in our own Selves. It is reflected in things, so long as we are identified with them.

An awakened soul cries, "O, how beautiful You are! How beautiful, how all-wise!" He sees His wisdom in all things because he becomes a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan. He sees that it is He who is doing it, not himself.

Naturally the question arises from a new man: "How did you get into this state? You say it is all beautiful; it is all glory; outside and inside, it is all His expression; God is Light; God is everywhere; He is the One who has always been the Doer. But how did you attain to this state? What did you do?"

That is a natural question. We are all, I think, seeking that state. The first step is: be truthful. Be truthful. If you don't tell lies, you will change. Deeds of darkness are committed in the dark. You go and want to do it somewhere where nobody can see you. Anything that requires secrecy is a sin.

Two seekers after God went to a Master. The Master told them, "Look here; here are two pigeons. Take them away and kill them someplace where nobody sees you." One was very active: he went around under the shade of a wall where nobody was looking, killed it and came back in a few minutes. The other poor fellow, wherever he went, did not find any place where nobody would see him. From morn until night he went around and around; and he returned in the evening unsuccessful. The Master asked him, "What? Haven't you been able to kill it?" "No, sir." "Why? Could you not find any place to do it?" "No, sir." "And who was seeing you?" "The very pigeon was seeing me!"

Follow the beauty of the sayings, I tell you. Live up to them, each one of you. You must be an ambassador, I tell you. Whoever has got the human body has the birthright to become God, I tell you. There is no exaggeration about it. But the pity is that we don't follow it.

For that very purpose you will find that you have been given diaries to maintain. What are they for? Be truthful, in mind, word and deed. Don't make false promises. Don't think one way and say another. Let your heart, brain and mouth agree. What is the criterion of a truthful saying? That all these three – your tongue (what you are saying), your intellect and your mind – agree with what you have in your heart. Can you then do any evil thing? When you do anything and you are later on asked, "What were you doing?" and you say, "Nothing, sir," is that telling lies? When you tell one lie, you have to tell hundreds of other lies to cover that lie. How we create more thorns for our own selves! With a truthful man, ask him something at any time and he says the same thing; he does not have to think about what he has to say. But a man who tells lies would have to think, "I told this man this thing, that man another thing." He is all the time trying to reconcile things. But the cat must be out of the bag!

Even one thing: if you are truthful, you can change. So, naturally we want truthfulness first of all. But not so that anybody sees it: you see it; the God in you sees it; the Master Power within you sees it. That is why I say, Be true to your own Self. If you are true to your own Selves, you are true to your God, to your Master. If you are true to your own Selves, you have none to fear in the world-in the three worlds. This is the first thing that is required.

And further, when some God-in-man, the human pole where He is manifested, puts you on the way and gives you an inner contact, that God-Power is the true Master, not the son of man. That resides within you. Can you do any evil or bad thing, even when a child of five years of age is sitting beside you? You'll require secrecy. Our Master used to say, "When a child of five is sitting beside you you'll want secrecy." If you are going to do some evil thing, you try to avoid being seen, although that very God-Power is within you watching your every action. How can you do any evil? So fear that.

Once it so happened in my life (generally these controversies do come up) that there was a great deal of propaganda against me. Once Master asked me to initiate two hundred and fifty people in the monthly gathering. Competition then naturally arises, and there was a great amount of propaganda against me. I kept quiet, because I was true to my own Self. I knew: "God is within me; Master is within me." And it was so arranged that I could not talk to the Master for eight months - such influential people were involved.

Once my elder brother, who was also initiated, was there, and I told him, "If you go to the Master, just, by the way, ask Him if there was any sin I might have committed." (But His eyes were giving me support, you see.) He asked Him. Master said, "He has not done anything wrong, either knowingly or unknowingly. But strangely enough, so much has passed over his head that he has never come to me to say that this propaganda that is being spread is not right."

I never asked any question of my Master, except two or three when I first met Him. So I naturally requested, "I want a few minutes with You."

"Oh, yes, yes, you are welcome." So, at night, when everybody was away, He said, "Lock the door." I sat by Him and I told Him, "Master, I did not come to You because I knew You are in me and You are watching my every action; and You also watch the future trend of my action. That is why I did not come to You." All the tables were turned.

Be truthful, I tell you. This is a very great qualification. We people don't care. We sell the prophet Joseph for the sake of a few petty monies. You gamble your eternal life with a few mundane things. Be truthful. Have fear: He is seeing; He is watching. These are two qualifications.

The third thing is: He gives you a contact with the Word Power and demonstrates how to rise within and come in contact with the Naam or Word Power, the Light and Sound Principle. Be regular in contacting this, day-to-day. This is the Bread of Life. Don't miss it.

And what will happen? You will have progress from day to day and have inner peace and inner joy. Any outward prayers or performances of rites or rituals you do will become blessed. When you say prayers, you will find Him in front of you. When you read scripture, it will always be vivid to you. Such things you will find. Naturally, you will have all peace. When your soul is withdrawn, it comes in contact with the God Power, which is Light and Sound Principle. The more the outer consciousness comes in contact with the All Consciousness, the more it overflows with joy and peace and all wisdom. God is All Wisdom.

Masters never speak at the level of the intellect; they speak as it comes. Emerson says, "The thoughts which come without thinking are always perfect." What does the Master do? He loves all, even the sinners. For a sinner, He has more pity and more love, because He considers that he is a child of God. His work is to bring together all children of God.

This is the preparation that you are to make for the Way. But one thing more: a man asks, "You became the Beloved of God. How did you become the Beloved of God? How did God become the Beloved of you?"

Take the example of a girl. She has been married. She is devoted to her husband, mind and soul; she is true. She lives according to what he wishes. What is the result? She loves her husband, and also her husband begins to love her. Whatever she wants or needs, or he sees that she wants, he gives it to her and provides her with it without her asking for it. The wife becomes the lover of her husband, and the husband becomes the lover of his wife. This is a worldly example. When the Masters give teachings, they give them both ways.

Those who love God come in contact with Him, and naturally those who go at His beck and call do not do anything of their own free will that is earthly. He becomes enamoured of them. The Masters love God and God loves Masters. But Masters are none other than God in them: that is only a relative statement.

The question arises, how can you become the Beloved of God? Naturally, you can by obeying – just as any female, any girl, would do. When a girl is betrothed and truly engaged at heart, she thinks of him all the time, is it not so? And that reacts in the heart of the other; that abides in him; and he abides in her. That is what develops receptivity. And what does that do? The other one does what he, too, does.

There is a story in India about a Master who fell in love with his student. The student had poor handwriting; he scribbled. And the Master became so enamoured of him that he began to copy that scribbling. This is a feat of love, I tell you. Love has great power. One saint prayed: "O God, we have been liberated from the world and from all entanglements and bindings. Now You take care of Your own Self. You are bound more than me!"

This is to show how we can become the Beloved of God. How? When we obey Him, that's all. "If you love me, keep my commandments. Let my words abide in you, and you abide in me." Only then. We do not even obey the commandments of the Master. If there is no progress or little progress or whatever you get is lost, who is at fault?

The man-body is the golden opportunity that has been given to us. Whoever has the human body has the birthright to know God, I tell you. And we are losing this golden opportunity for nothing, for our little sense pleasures. Now examine yourself and see where you stand.

Then comes one thing more – chastity. What does the husband expect of his wife? Chastity. She should love him alone, for God has given him and united him with her as a companion. She should be devoted to her husband. This is an example in the world. Similarly, a lover of God should be devoted to God and should let nothing else come between him and God. Whatever he does, he does for the sake of God. Whatever the wife does – all the household affairs without any payment or any obligation – is to win the love of her husband, is it not so? This is the chastity of thought that is wanted.

You have been given the diary for truthfulness, for love of God and for love for all. For the sake of God love all. "Love God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy soul, with all thy mind." Love all humanity. You see God in your sons, in your daughters, in your husbands, and in your wives. Be true. What is that love that loves one here and then goes to another? That love is no love that changes.

So for the love of God we should love all. He resides in every heart. There is no heart without Him. We should be chaste, devoted to God and God alone, and to no other – even if you love your Master it is for the sake of God in him. The Son of Man body is blessed at which that Power works: That is within you as well. This is how you can earn the love of your husband. He will do anything at your beck and call, I tell you.

Masters have said these things in a worldly way. One Mahatma said, "The Masters are the workers, the executive officers in the house of God; whatever they do, God does not refuse them. They are the beloved sons of God." Rumi says, "If an arrow has been shot down from heaven, Master has the power (Who is the Master? The God in him, not the man-body) to turn that arrow back from the very middle of its path." The question arises, "Is he greater than God?" No! God loves him; whatever he, the God in him, does, God accepts.

This is what happens. The Master says, "We are bound, O God. You can liberate us. Who will liberate You? You are bound by the chains of the silken bonds of love, which are stronger than chains of iron!"

This is how we can reach that state. And what does the soul realize? She realizes, "I am the most fortunate on earth," and that God loves her. When the wife thinks that her husband love her, how happy she feels! Such a lover of God – or a wife, I would say now – feels God loves her. When she loves, she does not do anything. Any lover or wife who is convinced at heart that her husband loves her – how happy she feels! When you feel God loves you, you find you will have nothing to say, even nothing to pray for. Prayer comes out of the heart of a weak man. When he is convinced of his greatness, being in the lap of God, and that God is for him and he is for God and the soul is also God's, he does not pray. Has any wife, married to her husband, ever cared for how she will be taken care of? That is another thing: in the West married women have now begun to take jobs; but in the East, when a woman is married, she never cares for where the clothing she will get comes from or what she will eat. She says, "I am married." When you are for Him, it is He Who has to look after you.

Such are the feelings of the lover of God, or the wife. Further, a man goes to her and asks: "Well, what experience did you get?" She has been talking about so many things. "What experience did you have?" Then she gives a reference to the experience she had. She says, "I saw grandest suns of suns rising within me." God is all Light. That Light comes when we rise a little above the physical curtain; and then as we rise and shake off the astral and causal shackles, that Light grows more and more and compares in light to billions and trillions of suns.

Even then there is some duality. You see the Light. The seer and the seen are two. We still have to take a further step, mind that. There was a great sage, Shankara by name. He said, "O God, I know there is no difference between You and me; but I am Thine, Thou art not mine; because a wave can be of the ocean, but the ocean cannot be of the wave." And when you see that Light of Light, you are absorbed into that Light. You become one with it. This is the ultimate goal. You are absorbed in that Light of Light, and you come into the wordless absorption in the wordless state – call it by any name you like. This is the destination, the goal before each one of us.

We are fortunate we have the man-body. How far have we developed? Most of our life has already passed. Fortunately, with the grace of God, we have met someone in whom God was manifested, and He put us on the way and gave us some experience to start with. Years have passed. Where do we stand? We are not further because we have not followed the things I told you about.

I am giving you in a nutshell the digest of what all the Masters gave when they came from time to time. It requires no change of religion, no outer school, no rites and rituals. Just rise above body consciousness. Make the best use of the preparatory steps you have before you. They are all meant for developing love and devotion for God. If you abide by them, then you must "take heed that the Light which is given within you is not darkness." I have been giving these words to you from time to time in different ways. This is the digest of all that. I had the good fortune to come over here with the grace of God and to have met you, one and all. I love you, one and all – not for my own part, but the God in me, the Master in me. No obligation. If the Father loves His children, there is no obligation. Similarly, I have love for you, and I wish you to have love for God in me – and the God in you.

And what should be done? To obey. And you will progress. Fully understand the purpose for which the diaries have been given and live up to it. The more you live up to it, the more progress you will have. Those who have had some fortunate background, but are not obeying these things, will be surpassed by another who is obeying and might have started fresh.

The greatest part of the life of this man-body has already passed; but for the sake of outward enjoyments, we are simply selling Joseph for the sake of a few pieces of silver. So just think carefully; I have nothing to impose on you; I appeal to your common sense for your own good and for my pleasure. Why? My Master – the God in him – gave me this duty. Whether I fail or not fail is not my job; I have to do my best. It is the God in me; and you will be helped without asking for it.

After a week or so I will be leaving physically, though not spiritually. This is the best golden opportunity we have had – these three or four months together. We cannot underrate the physical presence of the Master; but you will have the same radiation from thousands of miles away. God is within you. Master is God-in-man, not the man-body, mind that. That is already within you. Just live up to it; you will derive the full benefit of the man-body, and you will become, as I told you, the Beloved of the Master, too.